Caregivers Carry Virtual Clipboard

Students design mobile data-access system for health-care workers.

Emily C. Kumler, Medill News Service

Challenged by the age-old hassles of record-keeping, three Virginia Commonwealth University students have adapted a Tablet PC donated by Microsoft to create a "virtual clipboard" where anyone can create forms, enter information, and download everything into a central database.

The project's impetus came when representatives of Markel, an area insurance company, told university students that teachers and health-care providers for autistic patients were spending less time with their patients because the record-keeping had become burdensome.

Caretakers want an accurate record of how the patients behave on a day-to-day basis, but maintaining and referring to the massive archive was interfering with their mission.

Wireless Links

As a part of Microsoft's annual programming competition for college students, Matthew Morton, Matthew Nuckols, and Chris Stewart began in January to develop a cure for the information overload. Their adviser is Dr. Richard Redmond, who chairs the university's information systems department.

Using Microsoft's.Net Framework and Visual C# programming tools, the students built an interface between the database and other applications. The aim: to let workers enter information into the Fujitsu Tablet PC using the stylus so that it is local and accessible, but store the data neatly in a central location where it is also retrievable.

For example, the caregiver can call up information about a patient, enter it using the Tablet PC, and then recall information recorded earlier about the same person by connecting wirelessly to a Microsoft SQL Server central database. They can see the results in several formats, including spreadsheets and pie charts. They can also navigate through the database from one caregiver's records to another, in order to make comparisons.

"This system will tremendously increase our efficiency and make a big contribution to researchers of autism worldwide," says Dr. Robert Cohen, director of the Autism Center of Virginia, in a statement.

Good For Non-Techies

By the group's estimates, tasks that once took an hour to perform could now take only a matter of seconds. Further, the system is designed for those with virtually no computer skills.

"It was made for people who don't even know how to use [Microsoft] Word," Redmond says.

He explains that it wasn't appropriate to develop a program that requires a difficult learning curve, given that the caregivers are already being distracted from caring for autistic patients to perform their record-keeping duties.

"I encourage students to think in theoretical applications, as anyone would in school, but also to substantiate them into general applications," Redmond says. He adds that while the project is specifically targeted at caregivers for autistic patients, the system could be useful to anyone who gathers information.

The group will continue to work on the application next year, with an eye on ridding the program of the Tablet PC and replacing it with a digital pen. The user will write on special paper, and when the pen is returned to its cradle, the information will automatically download to the database, he says.

"The pen [design] allows you to have the pen and nothing else," Redmond explains. For their initiative, all three students were hired for summer internships by Markel.